Man arrested in South Lake Tahoe indicted on kidnapping charge

A federal grand jury returned an indictment today against Matthew D. Muller, a 38-year-old disbarred lawyer from Orangevale, charging him with one count of kidnapping.

Muller is charged with kidnapping physical therapist Denise Hoskins at the Vallejo home she shared with her boyfriend on March 23 and keeping her captive for two days before dropping her off near her mother's house in Huntington Beach. He allegedly demanded a $15,000 ransom.

Vallejo police initially believed the account by Hoskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, was a hoax and said the couple led investigators on a "wild goose chase."

Muller was identified as a suspect in the Vallejo kidnapping following an investigation and his arrest in South Lake Tahoe on charges stemming from a June 5, 2015 residential home-invasion burglary charges that occurred in Dubin, CA. Muller was arrested on June 8 at his family's cabin on Genoa Avenue on the South Shore.

“The bizarre circumstances of the events in Vallejo in March complicated the investigation of this matter,” said U.S. Attorney Wagner. “But the Vallejo Police Department, the FBI, and our law enforcement allies in Alameda County have done excellent work in recent months to bring this investigation to a conclusion.”

Muller is a former Marine who graduated from Harvard Law School before practicing law in California in 2011. He was disbarred after failing to cooperate in an investigation into charges he kept advance money from a client that was meant to go to the purchase of a green card.

The investigators who arrested Muller in South Lake Tahoe found a laptop that resembled one Quinn had. They also recovered a stolen car in South Lake Tahoe that was connected to Muller which had numerous other items inside, including a water pistol with a flashlight and laser pointer on it, both connected to the Vallejo kidnapping.

FBI agents spent over eight hours in the South Lake Tahoe home, searching for evidence in home invasion and kidnapping crimes.

Muller is currently being held in the Sacramento County Jail. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday, October 5, 2015, before United States Magistrate Judge Kendall J. Newman at 2:00 p.m.

If convicted, Muller faces a maximum statutory penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 fine. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. The charges are only allegations; the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.